How Data Teams/P.L.C.'s are Embedded in EW Model
The instructional model that is known today as Empowering Writers was born out of the real world of the classroom. The skills and strategies that are the foundation of our approach were developed over several years of trial and error. This development was driven by student work, data, and input from grade level teachers. Essentially, long before the buzz-words data teams, professional learning communities, and common formative assessments were born, Empowering Writers was employing these strategies to develop a writing approach that delivers proven results through a strong methodology, common language across and between grade levels, assured experiences, and team building.
Let’s look at how the same strategies that fuel data teams and PLC’s are embedded in the core of the Empowering Writers approach.
Data Teams:
1. Collect, chart, and analyze data from Common Formative Assessments.
2. Analyze strengths and obstacles by reviewing student work samples.
3. Prioritize needs and set goals.
4. Select Effecting Teaching Strategies that all team members will implement.
5. Identify results indicators.
Look at how Empowering Writers uses these strategies:
Step 1: Empowering Writers uses a common formative assessment to identify student needs in writing. Once this is collected it is used to chart the common strengths and weaknesses of all students.
Step 2: Using a rubric, student work samples are analyzed and discussed. Areas of common weaknesses are highlighted and instruction is then focused on the skill area that will bring about the greatest amount of change.
Step 3: The methodology of Empowering Writers instruction is about breaking the writing process into a series of explicit skills. By gathering teachers into PLC’s and looking at student work objectively, teachers can more easily identify student needs and set a specific goal that is measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound.
Step 4: With Empowering Writers in place, the process of selecting effective team strategies to be implemented is easily done. Once the area of focus is identified, teachers have a large selection of lessons for the targeted skill area. Lessons are modeled and guided practice is provided so that students can focus exclusively on that area of writing.
Step 5: As students work on skills in isolation, teachers can easily monitor their teaching objectives through student work in the guided practice.
Empowering Writers provides a detailed scope and sequence for k-8. This invaluable document supports the message that creating a community of writers is the role of the entire teaching staff and not just the job of the teacher whose students are tested in a given year on a particular genre of writing. As with PLC’s, Empowering Writers foundation and structure is about uniting teachers across and between grade levels to the common goal of improving student writing. This approach mirrors the benefits of PLC’s: a shared vision, opportunity to work collaboratively, visiting and observing classrooms, formalizing goals for student achievement, and shared decision making.
